Edina Morningside Community Church

Today’s scripture reading: Luke 24:1-12

Sermon audio:

For all the plentiful symbols, sights and sounds of this twenty-first century Easter, none of what we see today was present on that first Easter morning. There were no brass or stringed instruments to undergird resurrection songs. No perfect clusters of lilies, or bold “alleluias”, or choir anthems, or squeaky-clean children. No Hallmark cards, ham dinners, egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, or marshmallow Peeps. There was nothing that set this day off as special from any other “first day of the week, at early dawn”.

Continue reading “Hidden in Plain Sight” →

Edina Morningside Community Church

Today’s scripture reading: Luke 18:31-19:10

Sermon audio:

Once a month, a Catholic laywoman named Deb invites me into her Edina home to unburden my soul. She is my spiritual director, and I’ve been seeing her for almost eight years. Each month I show up as a tangle of inner conflicts and she holds space for me to share what’s on my heart, then mirrors back to me the boundless grace of God’s love. She is a chiropractor for my soul, releasing tensions and aligning my spirit so that I can be an open vessel of love for God and others. Her sunlit living room is like church to me, even though there are no hymns and “passing the peace” goes very quickly.

Continue reading “Love at First Sight” →

Edina Morningside Community Church

Today’s scripture reading: Luke 16:19-31

Sermon audio:

Last Sunday after worship I sat downstairs in Fellowship Hall, meeting with the Capital Campaign Executive Committee. From the other side of the room, Pam DeLaittre came over and spoke in my ear. “We have twenty-two beds!” she told me with awe. She was referring to our Lenten fundraiser for the Daylight School in Kenya, where $40 provides one new set of bedding for students at the residential program. But: “Twenty-two??” I asked. “We had only three at the start of worship!” Pam confirmed twenty-two, and my mouth fell open. I started bouncing up and down in my seat at the breathtaking compassion in our church community. This is even more remarkable because it was not one large check (as I assumed), but many faithful and loving gifts to support the students of Daylight. Church, my heart swells with gratitude every time I see your selfless generosity. Sometimes it’s financial, as in your weekly and monthly pledge support or examples of special support for ministries like Daylight. Other times it’s in your time and talents, as when the Green, Williams and Engelke families donated many hours this week to dusting, cleaning and resetting the library and third-floor spaces after construction. At all times, it’s humbling and inspiring to serve in this generous congregation. Sincerely, thank you.

Continue reading “Hindsight is 20-20” →

Edina Morningside Community Church

Scripture: Luke 2:1-14

I noticed something new this year at Christmastime: all the carols that mention joy. Of course, there’s “Joy to the world!” but also, “Joy, joy, for Christ is born” and “joyful all you saints arise”! See if you can finish these: “Tidings of…comfort and joy!” “Peace on the earth, good will to all…great news of joy we bring.” “O come, all you faithful…joyful and triumphant.” and “Good Christian friends…rejoice!” You get the idea.

Continue reading “The Joy Virus” →

Edina Morningside Community Church

Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8

This is a hard Sunday to be a preacher—a number of my colleagues have asked for prayers as our sermons come together. This is a hard Sunday to be a churchgoer as well, to be someone who cares enough about healthy, hopeful community to show up today, even when the state of politics is on everyone’s mind (including the preacher’s). Some of us are crushed by the election results, and fear the worst of what President Trump’s America could mean for children, refugees, immigrants, people of color, queer folk, the sick, the poor, and the planet. Others of us are relieved by the surprising developments of Tuesday night, so fed up with Washington gridlock that we have longed for someone to show up and throw the rascals out. Most of us are praying for our leaders and the country, hoping for unity where there is such division. Then some of us just came to see a child get baptized! With the great uncertainty in the nation, our time is not so different from another time, “In the year that King Uzziah died….”

Continue reading “Humility and Chutzpah” →

Edina Morningside Community Church

Did anyone else here have a hard time getting up on Thursday morning? There was a bit of a cliffhanger that kept many of us up on Wednesday night. I’m looking especially at the man whose email address is “mncubfan”—how are you feeling, Chuck?? If you were under a rock or stranded on a desert island for the last week, you might have missed the news that the Chicago Cubs are the “Lovable Losers” no longer. After more than a century of losing, the Cubs have won the World Series of baseball. All throughout this past year as one thing after another fell in place for them, Cubs fans kept pinching themselves and reminding each other not to get their hopes up too high. Their team—like a certain Minnesota pro football team—always manages to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. The Cubs actually winning the World Series seemed unbelievable. The Boston Herald’s front page on Thursday captioned the moment the best: “Pigs fly. Hell freezes over. Cubs win!”

Continue reading “(Dis)Approval Ratings” →

Edina Morningside Community Church

Today’s scripture reading: Genesis 15:1-6

Sermon audio:

Am I the only one who gets around to reading the Sunday paper on the following Thursday? So it was that on Thursday morning I saw a little book review in the business section of last Sunday’s Star Tribune. The new book Progress by Johan Norberg makes the case that, despite headlines and assumptions to the contrary, things are much better for human beings than they have ever been before. Poverty rates globally have been cut in half over the last twenty years. Two hundred years ago, almost 95% of people lived on less than $2 a day (in current dollars). That global poverty rate was at 37 percent in 1990, and below 10 percent in 2015. Furthermore, medical advancements continue at such a pace that even pandemics which would have crippled the globe a generation ago are now handled before they become catastrophic. The reviewer concludes that “not only have people grown much more prosperous; they also enjoy better health than even rich folks did in the past.”

Continue reading “The Sky’s the Limit” →

Edina Morningside Community Church

Today’s scripture reading: Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-17; 3:1-8

Sermon audio:

We waited until the very last day, but Javen and I made it to the State Fair this past Monday. It’s an annual tradition for us, made easier by the fact that we live just a mile south of the fairgrounds. I go for the livestock that reminds me of growing up on a farm, Javen goes for the seed art, and both of us go for the food. By Monday morning, well over a million people had been to the fairgrounds already. We saw the unmistakable signs of overpopulation in trash and traffic, while consuming four thousand calories apiece of miscellaneous deep-fried goodness. I remember waiting in line for a bucket of French fries on a grassy area next to the sidewalk. Well, it used to be grassy. Countless pairs of human feet had stood there before us, and that grass was trodden within an inch of its life. I’m sure it was thick and lush earlier in the summer, but by Monday it was trampled flat, and more brown than green. In truth, the lawn offered more dirt than plant underfoot. This is what happens when the equilibrium of people and planet gets out of whack. At such times of imbalance, the dust is revealed.

Continue reading “Promises in Dust” →

Edina Morningside Community Church (Edina, Minnesota)

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:9-14 and Luke 10:25-37

Last month I attended the Minnesota Conference Annual Meeting, the yearly get-together of UCC people at the College of Saint Benedict near St. Cloud. I had received the thrilling invitation to be your final candidate by that point, though the news was not public. Still, I just had to share it with someone. So I mentioned it to a colleague who serves our UCC church in Grand Marais. “Edina Morningside!” she said. “I’ve always loved that name! It invokes the morning, with all the beautiful serenity I know along the North Shore.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. “Morningside” suggests to me possibilities, freshness, and an eternal new start. Certainly I also feel that way because I’m thrilled at the idea of serving as your next pastor!

Continue reading “Morningside Mercies” →

Community United Church of Christ (St. Paul Park, Minnesota)

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

I’d tell you how great vacation was, but I don’t want to make you jealous. Javen and I just got back yesterday from more than a week in Montana. The occasion was my 15-year high school reunion, but the most important parts of the trip were visiting with my grandmother, aunt and cousins whom I rarely see these days.

Being in Montana, one can’t help but also notice the big sky and expansive scenery. On our last full day, Javen and I went with his folks to see Glacier National Park. This was a postcard-ready destination if there ever was one. Clear glacial streams, pristine evergreen forests, cool mountain air and jagged mountain peaks, each one higher than the last. We spent the day hiking and driving through Glacier, each turn of the road revealing scenery more stunning than before. By mid-afternoon, we were too glutted with nature’s riches to stop long and consider one more thing. So we drove past glacially-carved, pristine St. Mary’s Lake, and headed out the main eastern entrance to Glacier.

Continue reading “The Ministry of Reconciliation” →